The lowly seer

Teenage kicks

Seems the UK's youth are the worst behaved in Europe.

As the new IPPR report puts it: "Commentators fear that British youth is on the verge of mental breakdown, at risk from anti-social behaviour, self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse. ... Today's parents are richer than ever before and young people have access to an extraordinary range of activities and opportunities undreamt of even a generation ago... And yet the mental well-being of our adolescents is among the worst in Europe: one in 10 teenage girls has self-harmed. Child obesity is increasing.

Story. Where is the problem coming from? It's probably complex but one sentence in the report stood out for me:

Our youngsters are more consumerist in their outlook than the Americans

See the "Crime, insanity and a nice new pair of trainers" post in the June 2006 archive of this blog.

posted by Les the Spaceman @ 10:41 pm